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Guest Posts

Guest Post, She is Clothed With Strength: How Fitness Saved Me

August 23, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 4 Comments

It’s always great when I have a “real-life” friend want to share a part of their life with me on my blog. This article is written from my friend Sarah at She is Clothed With Strength…and that she is! I have watched her transform her body, run half marathons, and encourage others to do the same. 

How Fitness Saved Me

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Hi Everyone! This is Sarah from She Is Clothed With Strength. I’ll start by saying that I am a fitness fanatic, nutrition geek, homeschooling mother of one, devoted wife, and Jack Russell Terrier Lover.

When Jackie invited me to write for her blog I wanted to write something EPIC. Something that will rally the troops to the gym or the road but ultimately I came here. What better story to share than my own. * shy grin *

I do love fitness. I love talking about it. I love researching it. I love teaching about it and writing about it. I guess you could say I am a fitness geek. Not only do I like to learn new moves that work but I also like to learn WHY those movements work…down to the muscle fibers. Gah! It is great stuff. But, I promise I won’t go into any ‘boring to other people’ details.

Today I want to talk about how fitness really did save my life.

Fitness is a fairly new addition to my life and it is a welcome one at that.

Let’s go back quite a few years.

I have never been an athletic person. I loved to swim, ride my bike, go on hikes, and jump rope. I was never remarkable at anything I did. Honestly, I preferred to read my books and create from within the house. I enjoyed the outdoors but reading curled up on the couch was far more attractive. I went through phases of running but they never really stuck for very long.

I was never a big girl growing up. I was slender but I don’t think I would ever say I was thin either.

There was one thing that was always present in my life…

Depression

The Blues

Melacholy

Never feeling good enough

There were some pretty dark times in middle school and high school. I never talked about it. I suffered in silence. I am not a very open person by default. I am getting better about being more vulnerable with people but that is a more recent development. Until then, I was quiet. I am sorry to any family members or friends who just never knew. It was my fault that I never shared.

Okay, onward….

Ultimately, it was my faith that saved my literal life. I really don’t think my I would have made it out of that pit alive without finding my faith in Jesus. He saved my soul.

But, it doesn’t end there. Just because I have faith does not mean I don’t still struggle. I am not perfect and won’t be on this side of heaven.

Good thing and bad things have happened. I’ve gotten married. We had our son. Job loss. My Mom died suddenly. Secondary Infertility. Etc. Etc. Etc.

One thing was always consistent in the good and the bad. I always ‘medicated’ with food. Stress eating. Sadness eating. Happy eating. Celebrating Eating.

Despite all the amazing things in my life I always kept one foot in that pit of depression.

One day I decided to start running again. I wasn’t good at it. It is hard to run when you weigh a lot. I was slow. But, I did it.

Slowly, my moods started to stabilize. I lived for the endorphin rush that running provided. I got addicted.

Then guess what happened. After lots of 5K’s and two half marathons and training for a full marathon I had to hang up my running shoes. My knees just couldn’t take it. I grieved the loss of running after I limped the last 3 miles of a long run in tears because I was too stubborn to call my husband for a ride home.

At that point, I knew I needed to do something. I couldn’t quit my fitness journey.

That’s when my husband and I walked into the weight room at the gym. We were completely lost and wandering. With fits and starts, we found our groove in the gym. We trained together for a few months until his job prevented us from that. I found a program I loved and found my way around the gym again but this time alone.

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Now, I am totally addicted to the gym.

I have found my groove.

I am actually good at this.

I have found my anti-depressant.

I actually discovered that the reason I was never “thin” in high school was because I naturally carry a lot of muscle. So, there really WAS something I was good at. It just took 32 years to find.

There is a meme that I have seen circulating on Facebook that says “Food is the most abused anti-anxiety drug and exercise is the most under used anti-depressant.”

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That is TRUTH right there, folks.

In college I had a professor in my Abnormal Psychology class who said that the first step in therapy for his depressed clients was to have them go out for a run every day.

Do I still get sad and depressed at times. You bet I do.

What do I do now? I go to the gym and I squat and deadlift. I do a butt load of burpees. I run sprints on the treadmill. I get those endorphins to such a high level that I can’t help but feel good about myself, my family, and my world.

I am addicted to endorphins.

Exercise saved me. It has brought my life back. I am better Wife, Mom, Friend, and Person. And I won’t stop talking about it. It saved me and it could very well save you.

Find Sarah Online:

  • Follow her blog.
  • Follow her on Facebook.
  • Follow her on Instagram.
  • Follow her on Twitter. 

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Sarah is the Wife of Chris and the Mother of Caleb.  When she is not squatting, deadlifting, jump roping, or dying from burpees she is homeschooling and making her house a home.  Fitness is her passion and she longs to help more women see their worth through the transforming power of exercise.

 

 

Filed Under: Fitness, Guest Posts Tagged With: fitness, paleo, primal, running, weight lifting, women with weights

The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Guest Post for Popular Paleo

August 20, 2013 by Jackie Ritz Leave a Comment

 

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If you feel like salivating over amazing Paleo food porn, you need to go check out Popular Paleo’s recipes! They are beautiful and delicious.

I was so excited when Popular Paleo asked me to do a guest post on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate“. I have ate some amazing, Paleo food the last 2 years…but I have a few favorites!

Click here to go to my guest post on Popular Paleo and find out what my favorite Paleo recipes are!

Filed Under: About Me, Guest Posts Tagged With: Balsalmic chicken, gluten-free, grain-free, Mexican slaw, paleo, Popular Paleo, primal

Guest Post, BuyingPoultry.com: Bringing Home the Best

June 19, 2013 by Jackie Ritz Leave a Comment

I get quite a few emails from different companies and organizations who want support or advertisement for their products and causes. Cameron, from BuyingPoultry.com, emailed me about support for their cause. After checking out their website and reading about what they are doing, I couldn’t help but help out an awesome organization! I think what Buying Poultry is doing is great and I know all of you will too!

Do you find yourself asking what labels like free-range, organic, and cage-free really mean? Do you wonder if that “vegetarian fed” chicken is worth the extra cost or if those “natural, cage-free” eggs are better than “free-range”?

More and more people have recognized that today’s meat industry took a wrong turn when it replaced farms with factories.

Take the chicken, turkey, and egg industries, for example. We’ve all seen images of sick, drugged birds crammed into towers of cages. We know that these systems produce an inferior product at great expense to animals and the environment. But many of us feel paralyzed because we simply don’t know how to tell the good eggs from the bad.

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If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone! In grocery stores across the country, consumers simply don’t have enough information about the food they buy to make the right choices for their families. That’s about to change.

Enter BuyingPoultry.com: A reliable and easy-to-use digital guide for shoppers who want to find the chicken, turkey, and egg products that meet their personal standards of welfare and sustainability. The site will also provide information about the best plant-based alternatives and where to find them.

Today we’re less connected to our food than ever before. BuyingPoultry.com is a response to this new reality. In previous eras of human history, everyone knew where the animals they ate came from and how those animals lived. And previous generations didn’t have to face hordes of marketers bent on deceiving well-meaning people with clever labels and images.

In sum, early humans would have known a great deal about the animals they ate. This knowledge has been lost to us and it means we often buy animal products—especially poultry products—that aren’t healthy and that don’t reflect our values.

Did you know that ninety-nine percent of all chickens and turkeys are raised on factory farms? You’re probably already among those who sense that factory farms contribute to antibiotic resistance, create toxic pollution, and cause animals to suffer, but are you aware that the poultry raised on factory farms actually has more fat and less protein than the birds that our grandmothers (let alone our early ancestors) ate?

BuyingPoultry.com will empower you to buy poultry with real knowledge of what you are getting.

BuyingPoultry.com will offer information from leading experts about where our food comes from, identify the best products in your area, and make it easy to submit feedback to companies about the kinds of food you’re looking for. Armed with this powerful set of tools, we’ll be one step closer to finding the food we want in the places we shop most.

Back BuyingPoultry.com on Kickstarter before June 28th and help us provide the information consumers need to make informed choices. Together we can change the way our nation eats and farms.

spreadtheword

BuyingPoultry.com is a project of Farm Forward, a nonprofit advocacy and consulting group driven to transform the way our nation eats and farms. We use a wide range of innovative strategies to promote conscientious food choices, reduce farmed animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture.

 For more information, please visit
https://buyingpoultry.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BuyingPoultry
https://twitter.com/BuyingPoultry
https://pinterest.com/buyingpoultry/

Filed Under: Guest Posts Tagged With: buyingpoultry.com, free range chickens, local, paleo, primal

Paleo Eliminated My Son’s Seizures

May 17, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 5 Comments

seizures

I just, ABSOLUTELY, love this story that Cavemom’s Cooking is going to share with us today. This story brings tears to my eyes because it, perfectly, describes the love a mother has…

…how she won’t take the average answer to be the ONLY answer

…how she KNOWS her son…truly, knows him

…how she heals her baby’s seizures with proper diet.

Yes, I love this story, and I know you will too!

The end of May marks a special anniversary for us:  Our son, Kaiden, has been seizure free for 3 years.

Kaiden has Down Syndrome, and was diagnosed with benign myoclonic seizures (infantile spasms) when he was almost 8 months old.

Doctors told us to expect global delays and low muscle tone in regards to Down Syndrome, but they didn’t talk about dietary needs.  After the seizures began, I noted that sweet potatoes and carrots intensified Kaiden’s seizure activity.  The neurologist said outright that diet had absolutely nothing to do with the seizures. He also told us because of Down Syndrome, this type of seizure would not affect Kaiden cognitively and that he may outgrow the seizures within a few short years. So, with that knowledge and because of the possible permanent side effects of allopathic anticonvulsant drugs, we chose to go the holistic route, which significantly reduced, but not eliminated his seizures. I still felt very strongly it had to do with food.

 A few months into the seizures, I became concerned over Kaiden’s cognitive and motor delays.  Everyone said it was Down Syndrome; that I needed to expect these delays.  But I just couldn’t accept that.  In the midst of the seizure-ridden days, he had lucid moments.  Moments where he’d do things, normal baby things.  The most memorable one was four months into the seizures.  He looked directly at me, said “Mama,” smiled at me, repeated it, and then repeated the performance again the next day.

Most of the dietary research I was able find was actually on autism, rather than Down Syndrome.  All I could find about treating Down Syndrome holistically was that individuals were more likely to be gluten and lactose intolerant.  Since I knew many autistic individuals also were gluten and lactose intolerant, I began to look into it.  Because Kaiden was still on breast milk, he wasn’t yet getting any extra dairy.  I chose to remove grain from his diet as well.  If he got any lactose and gluten, it was solely through breast milk (I exclusively pumped for him). I knew from very early on (pre-seizures) that through breast milk,  fresh green peppers gave Kaiden a rash and painful gas, so I had stopped eating them long before.

By his first birthday, Kaiden was pretty well on table foods.  I thought that his seizure activity was spiking after eating foods like spaghetti and tacos, but wasn’t sure as the activity didn’t seem much worse than average.  As far as the carrots and sweet potatoes went, it’s not like I gave them to him once and noted activity.  I tried on 3 separate occasions with the same, repeated result.  A day and a half later each time, his seizure activity spiked.  I was already keeping a log of his daily seizure activity; I began to add in what he ate.

 About a month after Kaiden’s first birthday, I ate an eggplant dish. And boy, did Kaiden’s seizure activity spike. Once I figured out it was the eggplant, I pumped and dumped all my fresh breast milk and gave Kaiden frozen breast milk for a few days, and his seizure activity went back down.

 A couple of months later, I tried fresh green peppers again.  I ate a tiny amount, and didn’t notice any significant difference in Kaiden’s seizure activity – no rash, no gas, so a few days later, I had a good helping of them.  And a day and a half later . . . on Mother’s Day no less . . . Kaiden’s seizure activity spiked like it had done with the eggplant. He spent Mother’s Day having seizures and screaming.  We both cried a lot that day.

 For several days after that I literally walked around the house saying, “what the @*#&%& do eggplant and green peppers have in common that Kaiden reacts so badly to them?”

Then finally, I typed in Google, “green pepper eggplant have in common“. And the connection came up . . . they are both members of the nightshade (solanaceae) family. As are tomatoes, potatoes, all peppers, paprika, ground cherries, and lots more foods I wasn’t familiar with. It was a smack-myself-in-the-forehead moment.  The light bulb switched on.

 Being into natural remedies, I am familiar with some of the properties of deadly nightshade but never thought about foods of the nightshade family. I was cooking with tomatoes, potatoes, paprika, and chili peppers on a regular basis.

Immediately I eliminated nightshade foods from my and Kaiden’s diets, and within a few days, his seizure activity reduced down to 1 – 3 seizures per day. Then I ate a grilled chicken sandwich (contained mayo, which has paprika in it, and a slice of tomato). A day and a half later, Kaiden’s seizure activity spiked. When it went back down, I ate a hamburger with mustard (contains paprika) and a day and a half later his seizure activity spiked again. That was enough of a “lab test” for me, and I completely eliminated nightshade foods for both of us.

Kaiden’s seizure activity dropped again, and within a few days, on May 28th 2010, he had his last seizure!

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 The more I observed him, and the more research I did, I came to the conclusion that the seizures were merely a side effect of what the nightshade foods were actually doing to him.  He gained so much in development so quickly that I knew there must be more to it.  My current theory, which may or may not be correct, is that nightshade foods over-stimulated his nervous system, allowing it to become overloaded, too noisy; he was not able to filter out that noise.  

 I may not know what caused his seizures in the first place, but I am thankful for them every single day; if it hadn’t been for those seizures I’d never have discovered the connection between nightshade foods and my son’s ability to process sensory input.

This began our journey into Paleo!!!

There is so much more to Kaiden’s story – you can keep up with us at here!

Keep up with our cooking adventures here!

 

 

Filed Under: Guest Posts Tagged With: autoimmune paleo, dairy free, down's syndrome, gluten-free, grain-free, nightshade free, paleo

Guest Post, The Simple Paleo Life: Paleo Batch Cooking!

May 15, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 2 Comments

My new friend, Sylvie,  from The Simple Paleo Life has some awesome stuff to share with you all on batch cooking. This is great, practical advice that Sylvie proves to be so much less daunting than what it really is. I know you will love what she has to share!

Save Time in the Kitchen by Batch Cooking

When we first made the switch to the Paleo lifestyle,  one of the things we struggled adjusting to was how much more time it took  to make real food versus boiling water for some pasta and opening a jar of pasta sauce. It felt like hours from prep to dishes.  We soon learned that spending a couple hours on a Saturday or Sunday would make the weekly meal prep a whole lot easier!  It also saves dishes to be washed since I, strategically,  use the food processor in a way that I only have to wash it once or twice during the big cookfest!  This is multi-tasking at its best.  I actually much prefer doing this than cooking one individual meal since I feel the cost-benefit time wise is much more favorable!

Here’s what I made during a day of mad kitchen prep on a weekend :

  • 2 roasted chickens with potatoes
  • braised kale (with bone broth) from our garden
  • steamed broccoli
  • ghee (from grass fed butter)
  • burger patties with hidden liver
  • bacon (vanished same day, oh well)
  • 2 gallons of kombucha started (for upcoming BBQ)
  • chopped carrot sticks for snacks

That sounds like a lot! But so many things can be done simultaneously that it really doesn’t take more than a couple hours!  Here’s what it looked like:

The night before:

  1. Plan what you will be prepping if you haven’t done so earlier in the week
  2. Set your frozen meats out to defrost

The cooking!

Start with the things that will take the longest to prep/cook.

I started by brewing tea for my kombucha (I only have one kettle, one mesh strainer and one big glass bowl so I did this in 3 batches).  Just writing this makes me realize I should get a couple more strainers and bowls to speed up the process!

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While that was brewing and cooling, I got the chickens rinsed off and in the oven with potatoes.  I usually add other root veggies as well.  Use timers, timers  are your friend.  I have my eye on this triple timer for days like this!

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Then I placed the butter in the pan to make the ghee and started the most hands on task: the “hidden liver” burgers.  (Grind liver, add ground beef and spices and fry them up!)

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While keeping and eye on ghee and burgers, wash and cut up carrots for carrot stick snacks during the week!

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Add one more pan with bacon to cook up. Warning: if kids and canines are present, your chances at having leftovers are ZERO.

If you have another burner available use it to steam some vegetables (I usually have all 4 burners going!)

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Braise some kale or collard greens in bone broth.  As the bone broth evaporates the minerals and “goodness” (I believe that’s the technical term) are left behind.

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That’s it!  Several meals and snacks in just a couple of hours!   Sip some booch while you’re doing it and you’ve got yourself a little party! 🙂

What are your favorite tips and tricks to reduce your time in the kitchen?

About The Simple Paleo Life:  Sylvie is a celebrity personal assistant and mom of 3 by day, paleo enthusiast and blogger by night.  She and SAHD hubby, Eric, each lost over 60 lbs with paleo and continue to improve their family’s health with food and lifestyle tweaks.  Sign up for their newsletter at www.thesimplepaleolife.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Filed Under: Guest Posts Tagged With: dairy free, gluten-free, grain-free, paleo, paleo batch cooking, primal

Guest Post: Mason Jar Salads

March 12, 2013 by Jackie Ritz 31 Comments

I am so excited to have my friend, Dusti, share her knowledge of making these convienent, beautiful, and frugal salads! Dusti is always showing off her beautiful pictures of these salads and I’ve been intrigued by them. I shared one of her pictures on my Facebook page and everyone LOVED them. Lots of people had questions about them…how to store them, how to stack the salad, how long they last…so I asked Dusti if she could share her wisdom with us all!

Mason Jar Salads

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Thank you to my friend Jackie from “The Paleo Mama”  for allowing me to write a guest blog post for her! It’s my first ever guest post, so please ignore my lack of writing skills!

Like most families, we continue to battle the “convenience” monster that hits the house between 11-1pm for lunch and 5-6pm for dinner. Since we like to eat fresh, whole foods, we have to prepare our foods and not being prepared adds to frustration and poor eating choices of grabbing something…anything…too quickly.

Having a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter can make prepping for meal times challenging. I work from home (i.e. working during naps when I could be prepping meals and after kids are in bed at night) with my photography business (Dusti Lynn Photography), my husband stays busy with full-time work as a firefighter for the City of Savannah,  a Crossfit coach, and he, also, started up a new business, as of six months ago, called  RetroFit Custom Design. We are very busy, but it’s so important to us to eat good, whole foods, so we try to find foods that we can prep all and at once, and foods that will last several days at a time.

One thing I continued to see over and over again on Pinterest was these meals in a jar – specifically “Mason Jar Salads“. We are always trying to increase our raw produce consumption and although we love salads, to stop and prep a salad each meal wasn’t working out too well.

So one week I decided to give it a go. I was skeptical of the freshness lasting beyond 1-2 days. I continued to read that they stay fresh for up to 5 days. I was very pleased to discover that on day 4 after making the salads, they were still very fresh!

It’s SUCH an easy way to add variety to your lunches while taking in a large quantity of raw produce.

The Basic “Rules” of Mason Jar Salads:

Rule One: Make sure your veggies are fresh – try to buy local, fresh from the ground produce to ensure your veggies aren’t a week old by the time you buy them at the grocery store

Rule Two: Dressing goes in first. Do not get it on the sides of the jar. Dressing does not need to touch the lettuce, spinach, greens, etc. It will wilt and make it yucky.

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Rule Three:  Try to put the veggies in the bottom on top of the dressing that would do well with marinating – onions, mushrooms, zucchini, squash, etc.
Rule Four:  Use the hearty veggies next to the greens to help buffer from the more moist veggies/fruits. Cherry tomatoes are excellent for this. Try not to use cut tomatoes unless they are at the bottom of the jar due to their higher water content!

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IMG_5723Rule Five:  For the dairy eaters – I do not choose to layer my cheese in the mason jars. Many recipes show that this is ok, but it’s a personal preference as I typically add stinky cheeses to mine and don’t want it in for a couple of days with the rest of my salad!

Rule Six: Store in the fridge until right before you are going to eat them.

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That’s it! Use your favorite salad recipe and layer accordingly! You can’t go wrong!

Here’s a typical prep day for me…

1. I clean my prep area and get my jars out and ready.
2. I rinse/drain any veggies/fruits to allow them plenty of drying/draining time while prepping the other produce.
3. I make my dressing(s). This usually happens every other week due to the fact I try to make enough at once to last through two-three prep days.

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4. I chop or grate all the produce and layer accordingly.

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5. Toast any nuts I plan to toss with my salad when it’s time to eat and store in a tightly sealed container.
6. Prep any animal protein we plan to eat with our salads in portion sized containers to make it easy when it comes time to enjoy.

I’ve compiled a few of my favorite recipes. But I’m serious – almost every single salad recipe you enjoy can be made this way. Just be sure to keep the dressing at the bottom along with any watery fruits/produce and the greens at the top. It’s seriously that simple. You can use store bought dressings or make your own. It really is amazing how versatile this can be.

Rosemary White Wine Vinaigrette 

  • Rosemary
  • white wine vinegar
  • olive oil
  •  garlic
  • ground black pepper
  • salt

CLICK HERE  for the Rosemary Dressing Recipe!

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Here is my absolute favorite mason jar salad recipe. With leftover grilled steak and a tiny bit of gorgonzola, it tastes more like a special treat than a super healthy-for-you meal!

– 2 tablespoons Rosemary White Wine dressing
– shredded carrot (I use around ½ cup)
– thinly sliced red onion – about ¼ cup
– well-drained mandarin oranges
– handful of blueberries
– arugula
– sometimes chia seeds are added on top of the mandarin oranges

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Here are some links to other salads I’ve loved…

Chunky Mediterranean Mason Jar Salad

Quinoa added Mason Jar Salads

Enjoy! And please make sure to ask any questions and share photos of your mason jar salads along with your favorite recipe to The Paleo Mama’s Facebook page!!

Filed Under: Guest Posts, My Recipes Tagged With: gluten-free, lunch ideas, mason jar salads, paleo, primal

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Hi, I'm Jackie Ritz and welcome to The Paleo Mama! I'm a published author, certified herbalist, and voracious researcher of natural medicine and nutrition. I'm glad you're here and I hope you stick around for awhile!

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